(Williams Martini Racing Team)
The Williams Martini Racing Team are in good financial health despite announcing losses of £20 million in the first six months of 2014. The team have confirmed that these losses were expected as they increased the investment in producing a competitive car for the season following an extremely disappointing 2013 campaign.
Williams CEO Mike O'Driscoll commented:
'We had a couple of options at the end of last year, which was save our way in to success - which I think was eventually death - and painful, The other was spend, but spend sensibly.'
The Williams Martini Racing Team are currently battling Ferrari for third in the Constructors championship with the Grove based outfit only ten points behind the Italian team as Formula One heads into the closing stages of the season.
Should the team maintain their fourth place in the Constructors championship until the end of the season they could expect to receive an estimated £14 million in prize money from Formula One commercial rights holder. The team lost the backing of oil giant PDVSA when Pastor Maldonado left the team however they have received a major boost when they signed a multi-year title sponsorship deal with Martini.
The team also signed a agreement with Banco do Brasil and oil company Petrobas. O'Driscoll continued by saying:
'When we decided as a board last year to press the reset button, we knew there was an investment cost associated with that. We made the decision, after a decade of decline until 2013, that enough was enough.'
The team are currently 45 points ahead of McLaren in the Constructors championship.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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